spacetoday.net: Shuttle landing postponed

Posted: Fri, May 22, 2009, 1:40 PM ET (1740 GMT)

NASA postponed Friday's scheduled landing of the space shuttle Atlantis by a day because of poor weather at the Kennedy Space Center. Shuttle managers waved off two landing opportunities Friday morning because of clouds and storm activity in the vicinity of the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC. NASA is now hoping to land the shuttle at KSC Saturday at either 9:16 or 10:54 am EDT (1316 or 1454 GMT) but is also leaving open the option of landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California depending on weather conditions and forecasts for Sunday. The Edwards landing opportunities are at 10:46 am or 12:24 pm EDT (1446 or 1624 GMT). Atlantis has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday if necessary, although there would be a strong effort to land the shuttle Sunday at either KSC, Edwards, or White Sands in New Mexico if the shuttle does not land Saturday.